The Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing supports emergency handling of flood disaster in Lumajang District by preparing the installation Bailey Bridge.
The latest media report shows that COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are more prevalent than the official figures. The report indicates that 15% of Indonesians had already been infected by coronavirus, much higher than the estimated 0.4% shown in the government’s data.
In the pandemic’s early days, Indonesians President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo admitted his administration had decided not to reveal all data to avoid stirring panic. His Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has also acknowledged the mismatch of health data between the central government and local governments.
[Our latest study] reveals that the complexities of Indonesia’s COVID-19 data management have contributed to this problem.
Why Indonesia could be on the cusp of a major Covid-19 spike
Fifteen months after the country reported its first coronavirus case, testing remains among the lowest in Asia. Indonesia just experienced a national super-spreader event on Eid. | Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana / Reuters
No one really knows the true state of the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, and that means it is unpredictable. But there are good reasons to worry about what will happen next.
Fifteen months after Indonesia reported its first case of Covid-19, testing for the coronavirus remains among the lowest in Asia. Perhaps because it is not free, testing has reached only around 40 per 1,000 people, compared with 115 in the Philippines, 373 in Malaysia and more than 2,000 in Singapore.
Here are the updates from Thursday:
The Centre said India was on a downswing of the second wave of the coronavirus and added that there was a steady decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in the last 20 days even though the number of tests had been increased. Government officials added that they believe the downswing will be sustained even when restrictions are relaxed.
India reported 2,11,298 new cases, taking the overall tally to 2,73,69,093 since the pandemic first broke out in January 2020. The toll rose by 3,847 to 3,15,235, while the active caseload stood at 24,19,907.
The Centre dismissed a report in
The
New York Times that claimed that India’s toll was probably around 42 lakh as “baseless and false”. The analysis by the newspaper also showed that the total coronavirus infections in the country could be around 70.07 crore.